Aviva Premiership Rugby Union club Saracens FC has agreed a new sponsorship deal with German insurance giants Allianz.

The new sponsorship deal sees the former Aviva Premiership champions wearing the name of the insurance giants on their shirt and also, their new stadium will be named as the Allianz Park after the naming rights to the stadium was sold to the insurance firm. In return, Allianz is expected to pay the club around £ 8 million for a period that is presumed to last six years, with a scope to renew the deal further.

The club has been playing at Vicarage Park for the last 15 years, a stadium that they share with the nPower Championship side Watford Football Club but hope to relocate to their new stadium at Hendon in North London by February 2013. And fans were not much pleased with the stadium sharing deal that the club struck with the football team all those years back.

But now, they are getting their wishes for a new stadium fulfilled and with Allianz sponsoring the stadium in a deal that is the first of its kind in the Aviva Premiership, Saracens FC have a solid foundation in terms of finances to bring unprecedented success to the new stadium.

It is common practice for football clubs to be sponsored by big firms with Arsenal and Manchester City being sponsored by Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airlines respectively and German giants Bayern Munich renaming their new stadium as the Allianz Arena.

But this kind of deal is a first of its kind in rugby, especially in England and it is being believed that with Saracens FC paving the way, the floodgates will open and more and more corporate giants will come with money to offer for the naming rights of the stadiums.